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Last Thursday’s Silicon Prairie Social 2 went very well, both as an event and as a personal experience. Here’s my personal wrap-up of the event:
Background: My boss (Arthur Zards) and I host a networking event for the west suburban Chicago tech industry called Silicon Prairie Social. Art put XNet’s muscle behind it when we saw there wasn’t something like this in the ‘burbs and people like us had difficulty getting downtown for city events. The first one was held last September, and we just held the second on January 24 at Mullen’s Bar & Grill, nestled where Naperville, Lisle, and Wheaton intersect. It’s been a full house both times, each drawing 200+ people.
The morning went by quickly, as a few things needed to be finished up before the event. By just after noon, we accomplished the list and I headed home to grab something I had forgotten and to Jamba Juice for some quick energy — the calm before the storm. Almost like a precursor to the evening’s festivities, one of the kids behind the counter saw my phone and got his out, we started swapping tips like creating webclips, and he told me of a YouTube video about copying/pasting on the iPhone. The video turned out to be fake– a proof of concept.
I arrived at Mullen’s just after 3:00 for setup. Robin arrived with our stuff not too long afterwards, and we began at once. Time flew, and around 5:00, Arthur and I traded a few laughs with sponsors Julian Pretto and Mike Mecklenburg of ChicagoMicro, who had just arrived. I also briefly geeked out over the iPhone once again with sponsor Mazyar Hedayat as he arrived with his wife (shameless plug: see the XNet iPhone webclip that I made here). At 5:30, I forced myself (actually Art forced me) to wolf down a salad that ended up being my only fuel and my last real breather for the rest of the evening. It was also the last time I checked email until towards the end of the event.
We ended up picking one of the coldest days of the year to host our second event. Thankfully, it didn’t snow like the previous 3-4 days, so guests had only to contend with traffic and not poor road conditions. Once we opened registration, my primary objective was to get people out of the bitter cold because of the line going out the door. Once we were able to open up a second check-in line, accomplishing that goal went much more quickly. When at last I looked out the front door and saw the number of guests arriving simultaneously had slowed to a trickle, I breathed easier and headed in to the event to mingle.
Have your own photos of the event? Upload to Flickr and tag them ’siliconprairiesocial2′.Despite the upsides of Mullen’s, location, ambiance, outdoor patio (for warmer months), one downside to the floorplan is it’s difficult to assemble everyone and do a full round of intros, thanks, and giveaways while making sure everyone can hear you. So, the megaphone made do this time again, and we successfully gave away an XBOX 360 from Microsoft, an iPod Touch from Optimus Solutions, an OKI printer from ChicagoMicro, and Piocon drew for their iPod Nano at their table.My personal takeaway was a great time seeing many people again whom I have met over the last year at other events, and meeting a good handful of new people who I hope to keep in touch with for some time to come (I’d give a bunch of shout-outs, but don’t want to disappoint by leaving somebody out). It’s always a mix of business and pleasure, and for me I’m glad Silicon Prairie Social provides a healthy dose of both. SPS provides the environment for living out the Jeffrey Gitomer premise that people like to do business with friends and with people they like and trust.
All in all, the event was a great success, thanks to the growing group of people who come out for an evening out with fellow suburban tech professionals. I’m glad to hear from attendees who are seeing Silicon Prairie Social become the premier opportunity for them to build quality contacts and relationships in the western suburbs. I, as well as Art and XNet, are glad we have the opportunity to host such a gathering and are looking forward to seeing the value of the event and the relationships that result grow.
I’ve been around the FIRST LEGO League and the FIRST organization, and through my involvement with the open source 3D LEGO community, I’ve had the privilege to meet some talented youngsters who are very confident in their technical skills. I’m inspired every time I hear news about young engineers–while I don’t know much firsthand about OLPC, it’s clear they’re developing software for a good cause and building their experience and confidence at the same time.
So, I’m a Facebook addict. As I’ve taken steps in the last couple months to increase my focus, I’ve spent less and less time there.
With the proliferation of applications in the recent months, (the majority of them at least mildly annoying with a healthy portion ranging from completely juvenile to all-out inappropriate), it’s become easier for the businessperson to tune out Facebook. I don’t blame them either, Facebook still hasn’t added a way to filter these annoying apps and the durn invites just keep coming, cluttering up the user experience.
Still, I believe the use of the site itself has value for building business relationships and staying in touch with people–in both personal and professional spheres–that can bring value to your career or business.
Here are four ways you can use Facebook to identify and develop new relationships:
Use Groups to find people with similar interests. Search for groups, or look at a friend’s profile and see what groups they are in. If they’re a professional contact, there’s likely at least one group on their list with members who you would have a professional interest in.
Research contacts and potential contacts on Facebook. It’s a great way to get to know some basic biographical info about someone you’re looking to reach out to or do business with if they happen to have a profile.
Polish up your profile. With the above, realize that people will be looking for info on you there as well. If you aren’t comfortable with random people peeking, lock your privacy settings down. If you are, make sure you present only the details about yourself you want public. And don’t forget the Limited Profile feature, where you can limit what information certain “friends” are able to see (you can find that at the bottom of the Privacy page). Just like the age-old adage about email–if you don’t want something to appear on the cover of the New York Times, don’t write it.
Create a fan page for your company or product. Facebook’s new Fan feature has been met with mixed reviews. Setting this up is easy, though I haven’t published one yet. If you have, please comment on your success and/or lessons learned.
There’s no magic bullet or one technique for using Facebook for business. In fact, often times you might struggle to tie your FB activities directly to sales or growth — it’s in that soft area of relationship building that isn’t always measurable. Introductions made and relationships built there can grow in value with time, just as within any other networking context.
What are your strategies for using Facebook for business?
Young entrepreneur Ryan Allis, founder of iContact, is looking for the help from entrepreneurs and professionals to make the second edition of Zero to One Million #1 on Amazon.com for it’s release date: February 5th. All proceeds go to the Humanity Campaign, “an international campaign to end hunger, war, genocide, and poverty and provide access to technology, healthcare, and education at home and across the world.” He created this Facebook group to spread his message. For those not on Facebook, I’ll copy his text at the end of this post.
I own a copy of the original Zero to One Million (Ryan graciously traded me for a copy of my own book, Virtual LEGO) and it’s been a great reference to me (in fact, I’ve recently picked it up again and have been reading bits and pieces over the last week). It was based on his experience as an entrepreneur building his company (then called IntelliContact Pro) to $1M in annual sales. Now, he’s updated the book with practical lessons learned from bringing iContact to $10MM in annual sales.
I’ve followed Ryan since we met at the C.E.O. conference in Chicago late 2004. He’s a passionate entrepreneur and change agent with a strong conviction to empower people through entrepreneurship and eliminate poverty around the world. When you get to know what he’s about, you can’t help but be impressed.
Worthier causes exist, but they are few. Please take a minute to learn more about Ryan and join me in buying his book on February 5th. So you don’t forget, add the book to your calendar with an alert for the AM of Feb 5th.
Text from Ryan’s Facebook group:
Friends–I need your help fo rizzle this tizzle…
Here’s the story.
Five years ago I self-published a book called Zero to One Million. It was about how to build a company to $1 million in sales.
Eighteen months ago in July 2006, I wrote a letter to 110 business book agents sharing my desire to update the book and get it published by a REAL publisher so that I could get the book in bookstores and share my message with a wider audience.
Eleven agents replied. Ten said no and one said yes–so I went with him ;-). That awesome guy, Rick Broadhead from Toronto, got me a publishing contract with McGraw-Hill to update the book one year ago. Sweetness!
I wrote most weeknights and Saturdays at the Starbucks off of HW55 in Durham during April, May, and June of 2007 to fully update the book and tell the story of building iContact to $10 million in annual sales, 18,000 customers, and 80 team members. The book’s about 70% new versus the self-published version in case you bought it in 2003 and were wondering.
Now, the book is done–all the disagreements with the publisher about the book cover are over–and it’s ready to launch. The book launches technically on Jan 18, but we’ve set a sales push date of February 5th. Time to push!
The book is my effort to share my message of social change, help anyone (who believes they truly can be) become a multimillionaire entrepreneur, and make what I’ve learned the hard way about business, venture capital, product development, business planning, building a sales team, opportunity evaluation, management, hiring and retaining superstars, organizational behavior, web 2.0, and marketing accessible to anyone.
Based on the commitments from my blogging friends and ‘friends with big lists’, I believe we have a realistic shot of making it to #1 on Amazon.com and onto the New York Times Bestseller List on February 5–but I need YOUR help to do THREE things:
1) Would you INVITE all of your friends who care about entrepreneurship, business, marketing, web marketing, social entrepreneurship, or changing the world to join this group right now? (Just click ‘Invite People to Join’ on the right)
2) Would you yourself BUY the book on February 5th on Amazon.com? It’s $12.71. I’ll definitely owe you a drink next time I see you.
3) Would you EMAIL your list of personal or business connections on FEBRUARY 4TH to ask them buy a copy of the book on Amazon FEBRUARY 5TH.
Anyone that buys the book on February 5 and emails their receipt to bonus@zeromillion.com will receive two exclusive video bonuses, “How to Raise $5 Million in Venture Capital: If I Did It At Age 22 So Can You!” and “How We Can Change the World Together: A Plan for The Next 50 Years.” VERY N-I-C-E (in BORAT voice)!
So what’s the dizzle about where the money’s going? This book and promotional effort is not an effort to make any money whatsoever–it’s an effort to spread a message of opportunity and social change and share what I’ve learned as an entrepreneur. All of the proceeds from the sale of the books are going to The Humanity Campaign–an international campaign to end hunger, war, genocide, and poverty and provide access to technology, healthcare, and education at home and across the world. I truly do hope to spend the rest of my life as a leader of our generation to help change our world together.
Really–sincerely and honestly–Mad props from my heart for your help in making “Zero to One Million” #1 on Amazon.com on February 5th and spreading a message of social change and entrepreneurial possibility!
The link to the new book is http://www.amazon.com/Zero-One-Million-Built-Company/dp/0071496661/.
Love. Hope. Peace. Prosperity…
Entrepreneurially Yours,
Ryan Allis
Chapel Hill, NC
=========================
My new book, “Zero to One Million: How I Build a Company to $1 Million in Sales… And How You Can Too” is launching Tuesday, February 5.
WOULD YOU BUY THE BOOK FEBRUARY 5 ON AMAZON AND INVITE YOUR FRIENDS TO JOIN THIS GROUP?
We are working to make the book #1 on Amazon and reach the New York Times Bestseller List–and have a real shot at doing it.
When you buy the book on February 5, email the receipt to bonus@zeromillion.com and you’ll receive two exclusive video bonuses, “How to Raise $5 Million in Venture Capital: If I Did It At Age 22 So Can You!” and “How We Can Change the World Together: A Plan for The Next 50 Years.”
The book is about how anyone can become a multimillionaire entrepreneur. It provides a ten step process for building a company from idea stage to over $1 million in annual sales based on my experience building iContact over the past five years to over $10 million in annual sales and 80 employees. It also talks about giving back, goal setting, and how our generation can change the world together.
Here are some advance testimonials:
Forgive Ryan Allis for being so young. Forgive him for imparting timeless wisdom based upon his own real-life experience as a entrepreneurial superstar. The kid just can’t help it. He has made a million-dollar dream come true and he shares how he did it this roller-coaster-of-a-read book. Your banker will love you for reading it.
Jay Conrad Levinson
The Father of Guerrilla Marketing
Author, “Guerrilla Marketing” series of books
Ryan Allis shares and intriguing story of business success that has few parallels. I know of no other person so young who has demonstrated this level of achievement in business. Young people need individuals like Ryan to look up to and emulate as they work to accomplish their own personal and business goals.
David S. Chernow
President and CEO
Junior Achievement Worldwide
I just received word of this event from Phil Rosenberg over at Rainmakers Global. Looks pretty cool — I may check it out. Be sure to pass the word on to other area professionals you think may be interested:
What could be better than a picture on your profile?
LinkedIn: Face-to-Face!
Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to put a face on some of those connections? Those with whom you interact on-line? Well here’s your chance!
Come for the People, Sample the Cuisine, Stay for the Music!
Friday, October 19th, 2007
Meet/Greet from 5:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m.
Dragonfly Mandarin
832 W. Randolph Street
Chicago, IL 60607
312-787-7600
For $20.00, one can purchase a Package, entitling you to two drink tickets and an appetizer
Easy to get to, at Randolph and Green Street
Valet parking available for $10.00 .. or ample street parking, nearby!
If you’d like to stay for dinner, book a table and receive a 20% discount (ex-tax/alcohol) Please keep in mind — tipping should be based on the entire bill! Access their website for menus and even make reservations, on-line!
Attendees are urged to bring:
a smile, a laugh or two, and lots of business cards!!
I love this post. In it, Penelope echoes many of my own feelings on owning possessions and clutter. Those of you who know me well know that I enjoy a tasteful setup, but am very sparse on “stuff.” I conduct frequent purges and give away/throw away stuff I’m not using. I pick up after myself several times throughout the day, too. Maybe it’s a reaction to a little bit much clutter in my room and in my parents’ house growing up. I dunno, but I like living “clutter free.”
Here are a couple quotes from her post that stuck out to me in particular:
When I was making a lot of money, I had great work clothes and a BMW (hey, I lived in LA), but that was about it, in terms of splurging. I kept an inexpensive apartment, and people used to tell me I was nuts to live there when I had so much money. They told me I was uncomfortable with success, and I worried they were right, but I stayed there. In hindsight, I realize it felt safe to live somewhere I could afford if my company went bankrupt. Which it did.
I’m still dreaming about that beamer. But I do selectively buy nice things (nice clothes are one thing I enjoy in particular), and I never buy on credit. In June, I bought a new MacBook Pro and some accessories with cash by putting money away for several months beforehand. For dress shirts, I hit up Banana Republic or Jos. A. Bank on clearance sales, and have even had great success finding dressy-casual like-new shirts and jeans at Plato’s Closet. I’m just a teeny bit proud that I have a slowly growing high-end business/casual wardrobe at a fraction of retail price.
When I moved from Los Angeles to New York City my husband and I rented a 500-square-foot apartment. We told ourselves we’d only be there for a year, until we got more settled in the city. So we put all our books in storage, most of our furniture, clothes that were not in season and everything we wouldn’t be using in the next three or four months.
I have a garage at my apartment. The only reason I go in there is to get my bike. Among the things I keep there are boxes for computer equipment, an unfinished bookshelf, and some winter clothes including scarves and sweaters.
The bad thing about stuff is you have to move it. When I went away for my freshman year of college, my parents towed their box trailer behind the car, full of stuff. 80% of that stuff stayed packed underneath my jacked-up bed frame and was never used. I moved home to commute locally after my freshman year, and a lot of that stuff stayed in storage at my grandparents’ house in New Hampshire until I could bring it back. That experience alone taught me the value of living, and moving lightly. Now, as I prep to move apartments this weekend, I’m happy that I live the low-clutter life that I do.
People think that what’s holding them back from taking risk is some big financial idea of stability and well being, but it’s really fear of losing your comfortable material life, whatever that is.
Now that’s something to ponder. I’ll add to that: You don’t take it with you when you die.
So, I’m sitting here working today and I’m a little self-conscious about how long my emails can get. I don’t write novels, but if you know me, you know I tend to go overboard on information. On my most recent email, I really believe I needed to include all of the info; it totaled 300 words.
I want to be sensitive to people who get a lot of email and respect their time/attention. Years ago, I used to wear out my welcome from being too verbose. Even though I’m not that guy anymore, I can still improve in this area.
What’s your take?
When is a long email appropriate?
How do you know when it’s too long?
What strategies do you use to decrease your email length, especially when you’re trying to get people on board with an idea or project?
I just watched a couple really neat videos on YouTube of large airliners coming together. This is amazing! The first one is an Airbus A340-600, the second one is a Boeing 777.
I’m not a big fan of the screen name. Let me clarify: I think nicknames are great, as long as a person’s real name is easily accessible. Why? Because people behave a lot better and they’re nicer to each other on the Internet than when they use a screen name. I’ve seen this played out countless times on sites and discussion groups over the last eleven years.
Screen names are good when they allow someone to express their personality. They’re bad when people use them to hide behind a computer and avoid being held responsible for their words and actions as they would be in offline society or their local communities.
Hiding behind a computer anonymously just does stuff to people.
Now, I completely understand If someone needs to stay anonymous out of fear for safety or privacy. In that case, the next best thing is to use a pseudonym and creating a consistent online identity that you have an interest in building and maintaining a reputation around. You can keep that distinct identity separate from your real life identity if you need to.
Penelope Trunk, author of Brazen Careerist, has changed her name on multiple occasions and now blogs under a pseudonym, and now it has become her professional identity. Because it’s a name she’s built a reputation and trades on, there’s a disincentive to damage he name or reputation by acting like an idiot on the Internet or being malicious. The effect is the same as if she were using her real name. (Of course, now that she’s ‘out’ with her name it no longer acts as a privacy filter).
This Sunday I was out to lunch with four friends. All but one were on Facebook, and of us four “Facebookies,” three of us had added the My Aquarium application and were actively sending fish to each other along with funny notes. So, what did we do? We talked about the last couple days’ activity. I felt awkward though that one person was left out, so I said to my friend “Mary,” “you really should get on Facebook.”
She replied that she just didn’t get into “those things,” (by that she meant social networks like Facebook and MySpace). While I can see why someone wouldn’t get into MySpace (heh heh), Facebook has really helped me stay connected to (and reconnect with) people I would have lost track of over the years. It’s really enhanced my social life, and it’s easy to use to boot.
So why isn’t Mary (and others who share her disinterest) on Facebook? I’ve boiled down peoples responses to two categories:
People who don’t get into social networking for one reason or another (I think my friend fits this category)
People who are intimidated by computers and/or the Internet
So, why do I care? Does it really matter? (Short answer: to me it does)
I want an easier way to coordinate social activities with my primary social group, the twenty-somethings at my church. The primary way we let everyone know what’s going on is via email to our group. Since my church is low-tech as a whole (they grasp email), people are always getting left off of group activity email blasts. We’re a fairly active and tight-knit bunch, so when people get left out multiple times in a row, it becomes an issue and feelings get hurt, even though there was no ill intent.
I’d say 80% of us are Facebook friends with each other. It would be very easy to create a Facebook group called “Young Adult Lifegroup” and broadcast events there. If you want the updates, join the Facebook group (and here’s instructions how and an invite). This prevents people being left out on the email CC and gives one central, easy to use location for group “stuff.”
I floated the idea a month ago and it was shot down. I’ll probably float it again soon. It looks like I’m an early adopter getting frustrated waiting for the late adopters :-)
For people who just aren’t into social networks, it would be great if Facebook had a feature that let you subscribe to a group via email; news items, events, photo gallery notifications, etc. This feature would go beyond the “invite people not on Facebook via email” feature when creating events, instead someone could sign up for email updates from a group if they received an invitation code. That would be cool, and it would let the 80% use a centralized site to manage their events and meta-discussion with the group.
The idea of social networking among real-life contacts is a very attractive proposition. It documents and makes it easy to communicate a shared culture, and it provides a one-stop place to get the word out about activities and events. But, some people haven’t taken the plunge yet and aren’t on Facebook (by far the most useable and attractive social network right now). Pretty soon, I see a new form of “digital divide,” those who are connected to their in-person friends via social networks, and those who are not. Call it the “social network divide” or “social OS divide.”
The questions I’m left with in the case of my friends are:
What is keeping the stragglers from signing on board?
If they’re intimidated, what can be done to make them feel more confident?
If they’re just not into it, where’s the motivation to get them into it?
I started using Facebook two years ago, right after I got out of college. I deliberately signed up after I was done with school, because I saw the others in the lab spending all their time on Facebook instead of doing their homework. When the site was just open to college students, I knew somehow it would have to “grow up” with its users to keep them engaged, but exactly how, I couldn’t predict.
Watching Facebook open up over the last year has been nothing short of amazing. Today, you hear the site being called the future “social operating system”. Facebook has the potential to encompass everything we do socially online–to the point where when I meet startup social network companies, I strongly suggest they write an application for Facebook Platform.
In LinkedIn, everything centers around establishing a connection. In Facebook, connecting is just the beginning. Facebook is all about community. And this can been seen by doing things like leaving messages on users’ walls, joining groups and having discussions, as well as some of the more social applications built for Facebook.
Thanks to the address book import feature, I’ve added many of my professional contacts to my Facebook friends list. I’ve also started adding people I meet at networking events like TechCocktail on the site. Even though I don’t know these people well (yet), because Facebook is “about the community,” or better, the ongoing interaction between users, it provides a superior tool for deepening the connection and relationship over time. This is really cool!
That said, there are a couple feature improvements Facebook (or platform developers) can make to make Facebook the optimal business networking site:
Segmentation of your Limited Profile - Right now, you can only customize privacy settings on one single limited profile. I use this to limit access of certain people to my info–but I have it set up for personal privacy and this applies to a very small handful of my online “friends.” If I could segment my limited profiles, I could effectively “hide” some of my business activity from non-business friends I don’t want to put to sleep. I’d hate to wear out my welcome for them on Facebook by posting too many business blog posts, for example.
iCal feed for upcoming events - I’m a Google Calendar user. I wish there was an iCal feed for every Facebook event I’m attending that would post the event in my Google Calendar (or iCal on my Mac, when I start using that). This is a simple, no brainer one.
What about you? Any pet features that would make Facebook a kick-butt business networking tool?
Wow, has it been that long? Flash back to the summer in-between my junior and senior year of high school. The memories are coming back to me now. I read the news on our email list on July 27, 1997–two days after he died of flu complications near his home in NSW, Australia. I had never met James face-to-face, but I had traded a bunch of email with him. I loved using the program he wrote called LDraw, it let me build LEGO models on my computer in 3D and share them with others. It was a DOS program and at first I was quite confused, so he walked me through using it over email.
This was the first time someone I knew only on the Internet had died. I was amazed at the sadness and emptiness I felt, even though to me, James was really just a series of emails and a program. What amazed me more was his death impacted all of my online friends–and at that point I hadn’t met any of them yet either. A memorial sprung up. LDraw users picked up where James left off, writing new parts and coordinating “official” community updates. They kept his passion for LEGO and computers alive through our “L-CAD” list.
One of my most treasured LDraw experiences over the last ten years was the brief opportunity to meet James’ parents, Don & Robyn, in 2001. I invited them to the second annual BrickFest in DC as a gesture, a courtesy even, not thinking they’d fly all the way here from Australia. They leapt at the chance.
Over the 2-3 days we spent together at the convention, they told me stories about their son and the remarkable things he did while he was alive. Never selfish, always helping other people, and passionate about computers and kids. James dropped out of his first year of college and soon after he taught senior-level courses. He was simple and humble, he loved his family and he loved to be a servant. He ran a small computer business and wrote LDraw as a hobby. Don & Robyn were sure proud of him, and they were delighted that we loved using and furthering James’ work, even if it was just his hobby.
Just a few weeks ago, I had the honor of presenting the 2006James Jessiman Memorial Award at BrickWorld here in Chicago. The award is a way the LDraw community recognizes people who make outstanding contributions to the LDraw system and advance James’ original work. While it has been a decade since James passed, I like that we pause and remember where our system came from by acknowledging James and his original work. When you look out today at the LEGO hobby, there’s hardly a corner LDraw hasn’t touched. It’s fundamentally shaped how people communicate, trade, and share ideas online about the brick. That’s something I wish James could be here to see.
Very good news came through the intertubes today about BrickShelf. Kevin Loch announced that he has determined a way, through paid accounts, to keep BrickShelf running. Also, in his post, he communicated his logic behind the shutdown last week, and admitted in hindsight it wasn’t the best way to go about it. Certainly a forgivable offense, and there’s nothing like a little shock therapy to give folks a wakeup call.
In followup to my previous post, though, I definitely wouldn’t do this to a paying customer.
Here’s to hoping BrickShelf lives on for years to come.
I was at the Denver airport on Monday. Before I whipped off my belt and set my laptop in the tray, I snapped a picture of this sign by the security line:
Tell me my taxpayer dollars don’t actually go to pay for a sign with an illustration telling people they can’t bring bombs on planes??
I love companies and people who provide great customer service. I have varying degrees of negative emotion ranging from annoyance to all-out hatred for companies who suck at it.
Today I stumbled, in a rather personal way, across an example of really bad customer service. The web site tens of thousands of LEGO fans have used to host photos of their models has been yanked from the web with not so much a warning — rendering thousands of image links and references unavailable and some people (including me) without some of their photos. The only “warning” was after the fact - a message on the BrickShelf web site that read:
Brickshelf has discontinued operation. We apologize for any inconvenience.
I for one lost a pretty rare photo — one of me with James Jessiman’s parents, Don & Robyn, when they came to visit in 2001. For those of you who know the backstory of James and LDraw, that’s a big deal to me (and I presume to a few others). Yes, I should have had that photo backed up, but I had no idea Kevin would pull a stunt like this.
Now, for some background, Kevin Loch has been hosting these images for free for about ten years. The bandwidth charges have been enormous for this, as Eric Smith speculates in his post (his numbers are spot on, I work in the data center industry). The LEGO company did subsdize the site for a while (not sure of exactly how long) when the cost became prohibitive, but has since stopped. Kevin also attempted to recoup some costs by displaying ads on gallery pages.
On one hand, it’s Kevin’s site, his out-of-pocket expenses, and he can do whatever he darn well pleases with the site. No one is or has paid him a dime (save individual donations). He has no legal obligation to anyone to maintain the service or give a warning of shutting down. It even says so in his terms of service.
So here you have it. Hundreds of thousands of pictures hosted on a site for years (and linked to by thousands of pages) are just gone. No advance warning, no opportunity for image owners to back up their stuff if they need, no chance for them to change their links over to say, Flickr, and keep their web site viewers happy.
Kevin deserves our thanks for providing a place to look at people’s creations. If he’s decided to take it down, then we need to say thanks, and move on. A warning might have been nice, but you have no idea what the circumstances were that caused the shutdown.
They have good points, but ahem “A warning might have been nice?” ??!
Let’s look at the bigger picture here. Tens of thousands of people have uploaded their stuff to BrickShelf. Thousands of people have used it as the de facto image hosting site for about ten years. This means there are thousand and thousands of links to images across the internet. Many are indexed on web sites, discussion forums, and blogs and they reference creations that are easy to find with a simple search. Kevin knows all of this.
While he’s been providing this for free for years, and it’s within his rights to take it down without a word, it’s certainly not nice. In fact, it’s downright rude. And while yes, the people who have used his site and enjoyed the pictures on it over the years do owe him a huge “thanks,” it’s also reasonable to expect us to be upset when it just disappears overnight, uprooting the majority of model images online.
The bottom line: it’s about customer service, and Kevin blew it on that one. By not giving people any opportunity to back up their stuff when he discontinued BrickShelf’s service, he pulled the rug out of a whole lot of people who “bought” into him and his site as a trustworthy place to host and link to their stuff. I don’t know what Kevin does for a living, but if I were looking to buy the professional services he provides and knew the BrickShelf story, I’d look elsewhere without batting an eyelash.
So Kevin, so long and thanks for all the images–but no thanks for pulling the cord.
. Thanks for visiting!
Wow, has it been that long? Flash back to the summer in-between my junior and senior year of high school. The memories are coming back to me now. I read the news on our email list on July 27, 1997–two days after he died of flu complications near his home in NSW, Australia. I had never met James face-to-face, but I had traded a bunch of email with him. I loved using the program he wrote called LDraw, it let me build LEGO models on my computer in 3D and share them with others. It was a DOS program and at first I was quite confused, so he walked me through using it over email.
